Iranian leaders link deadly mosque attack to protests over death of Mahsa Amini

A bullet hole is seen in a broken glass of the Shah Cheragh shrine in Shiraz, Iran, after the attack (Iranian Students’ News Agency, ISNA via AP)

Iran’s supreme leader and its president tried on Thursday to link the nationwide protests roiling the country to an Islamic State-claimed gun attack on a famous mosque that killed 15 people.

The comments by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi come as Iran’s theocracy has been unable to contain the demonstrations, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her detention by the country’s morality police.